WHY THE YOUNGER GENERATION IN THE UNITED STATES CHOOSES SOCIALISM

Most young Americans would prefer to live under socialism. This is evidenced by the survey conducted by the sociological service YouGov commissioned by the Fund for the memory of victims of communism in October 2017. According to the study, us citizens born after 1981, more negatively perceive social inequality in society than their fathers and mothers, older brothers and sisters, grandparents. At the same time, half of all Americans are not satisfied with the existing socio-political system and are in favor of changes in the social democratic key.According to a survey published on Americans ‘ attitudes to socialism, 44% of young Americans in the Millennials age group (born in the 1980s and 1990s) would prefer to live in a socialist country. 42% voted for capitalism, 7% chose communism, and 7% dream of a fascist dictatorship.

At the same time, the older generation, who managed to live during the cold war, prefers the usual capitalism. And if we consider the data on the American society as a whole, the supporters of socialism in it only 34%, and Communists and fascists — 3% and 4%, respectively.

Another interesting figure is the number of those who have a negative attitude to communism

In the minds of Americans, the concepts of “socialism” and “communism” are far from identical. Although a third of the US population is positive about socialism, the vast majority (75%) perceive communism negatively, believing that Communist ideology is still a “problem”. However, among young people, the percentage of those who are negative about communism is the lowest — 34%.

Images of Communist leaders are also more appealing to people in their 20s and 30s than to the older generation. Thus, only 26% of Americans consider che Guevara a hero, 18% also refer to Karl Marx, 17% — to Vladimir Lenin, 16% — to Mao Zedong, 13% — to Stalin. And among Millenials Che Guevara loves 31%, Marx-32%, Lenin-23%, and Mao-19%. The only Communist leader to whom young Americans are more negative than their older fellow citizens is Joseph Stalin. It is positively perceived by only 6% of young people in the United States.

Vladimir Putin, whom the survey organizers for some reason attributed to Communist leaders, is considered a hero by 25% of all Americans (among young people, 21%).

Founded by former national security adviser to President Carter Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1994, the Foundation for the memory of the victims of communism became interested in the study of the attitude of American society to socialism only in 2016. It was then that the first survey of this kind was conducted.

The researchers did not hide that the reason for the survey was the growing popularity of Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders, who put forward his candidacy for President of the United States in the 2016 elections. The politician, who in the US is called a socialist, almost bypassed the democratic primaries of the main favorite of the Hillary Clinton party, and voted for the 75-year-old Senator, mostly young Americans.

In the course of the study in 2016, the question of what social and economic system they would prefer to live, the us residents were not asked. We only found out how many of them have a negative attitude to socialism, communism and capitalism and how they perceive the current situation in the economy of the United States.

In 2015, YouGov conducted an independent study, according to which 36% of young Americans positively perceived socialism, and 39% — capitalism. In General, only 26% of all Americans were positive about socialism and 52% — about capitalism. As the figures show, over the past two years the number of supporters of socialist ideas in American society has increased.

Generation of losers

According to a survey by YouGov And the Fund for the memory of victims of communism, American youth is the only age group that is predominantly negative about the economic situation in the country. 53% of young people are ready to agree with the statement “the American economic system works against me”.

“Young Americans now live worse than their parents. Previously, it was the opposite: every new generation of Americans wanted to live better than their parents, and now American young people live worse or will live worse after graduation than mom and dad,” HSE Professor Alexander Domrin outlined the reason for the discontent of young Americans.

As foreign Policy magazine columnist Sarah Kenzior notes in the article “Why young Americans abandon capitalism”, the cause of discontent is the economic problems that the United States is experiencing after the crisis of 2008.

“Wages stagnate or decrease. The cost of services in areas such as health, education and child care is growing exponentially. Full-time work becomes contract work and benefits are reduced. Jobs associated with the middle class are replaced by low-paid service jobs. Expectations that you will live just like your parents when you were born,<…> crumble to dust,” — said Kendzior.

“American society was permeated with anti-communism, which was cultivated and planted during the cold war and which was preserved thanks to the well — being of the 1990s, the time of bill Clinton, – said in a conversation RT head of the Center for economic research of the Institute of globalization and social movements Vasily Koltashov. – But then came another era-the era of active implementation of neoliberal programs, reducing social spending and most importantly — the maintenance of universal commercialization”.

“Jobs with a good salary becomes less than a year from year. And those young people who came to work at MacDonald’s or some kind of trading network like Walmart, then to find a good job, were there forever,” explains the reasons for the special discontent of young Americans expert.

The reasons for the protest

However, more and more people are dissatisfied with the current state of Affairs in other age groups of American society. A year ago, before Donald trump was elected President of the United States, according to a study by YouGov and the victims of communism memorial Fund, 52% of Americans were negative about the existing economic system, and the only generation it suited were those born in the 1920s and 1940s. However, even now 48% of Americans believe that the economy is working against them, although the number of supporters of the existing system after the election of a populist President exceeded 50%.

Now the unemployment rate in the United States shows a downward trend and is about 4% (the lowest rate in the last 17 years), which roughly corresponds to other developed countries, such as Germany or the UK. However, wage growth is almost non-existent.

Since 2009, hourly wages have been growing at a low rate (less than 3% annually). In October this year, wage growth in the United States increased by only 0.4%. At the same time, in 2017, the cost of health services increased by 4.6%, and in 2018, the already expensive medical care in the US will become even more expensive by more than 5%. Although inflation in the US is quite low (less than 2% in recent years) and prices are rising slowly, there are many other problems that seriously complicate the lives of ordinary people.

“There is a debt load of the population, the problems with the labor code in the US, where the hospital is due to leave, problems with the health care system” — lists the RT questions, forcing the Americans to advocate for the expansion of social functions of the state, research fellow, Center for North American studies, IMEMO ran Sergey Kislitsin. “Young people have no prospects, the American economy is in crisis, the real incomes of Americans have decreased by a third since the beginning of the global crisis in 2008,” adds Vasily Koltashov.

According to the same study by YouGov and the victims of communism memorial Fund, in 2017, seven out of ten Americans believed that high-income people paid too little and advocated for tax increases, eight out of ten considered the division into rich and poor “a serious problem,” and 37% of Americans advocated “a complete change in the economic system.”
New division

“The Americans felt the need for a social state and under socialism they understand primarily the social democratic model, where there is free medicine, free education, where everyone is guaranteed a pension and no one dies of hunger,” Koltashov notes. – There was a grandiose rehabilitation of the ideas of socialism, which since the 1930s, probably, have never been so popular in the United States, so clear and popular.”

Under the socialist slogans were protests Occupy Wall Street 2011 and demonstrations Fight for $15 (“Fight for $15”) in 2015, when the Americans demanded the introduction of a minimum hourly wage of $ 15. In 2015-2016, millions of us citizens at the democratic primaries voted for Bernie Sanders, but he, according to Vasily Koltashov, “was not up to the historical task.”

“When the question arose, where to lead the United States and how to act, he went to a deal with the right Democrats,” — said the expert.
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